Only 5 weeks till the start of our 2-month trip to Australia! Apart from visiting many of the traditional tourist attractions we want to climb in the following areas: Freycinet and Organ Pipes in Tasmania, Arapiles and Grampians, Blue Mountains. We are going to start in Tasmania. My question: are some of the routes there also equipped with carrot bolts and, if so, where is a climbing shop where we can buy the plates? I've got another question: do you think it is ok to drive the road to White Water Wall Campsite with a (rented) Toyota Hiace? I would also appreciate any additional info about the other areas, e.g. bush camping.
Thanks a lot for your help.

On 12/01/2014 Edward Oslabofvic wrote:>A rented vehicle is perfect choice for driving in to the White Water Wall>Campsite. As everyone knows, rented vehicles can drive over much rougher>terrain then privately owned vehicles.

If the rental agreement stipulates no driving on dirt roads, then be sure to wash the vehicle before returning it.

As a more direct reply to your question, Dieter, I was fairly surprised by the type and number of 2WD vehicles that were in at the WWW campsite last time I was there.
Including 24-seater buses and little Nissan rental cars with small wheels and not much ground clearance..
You'll probably scrape a bit, but it's sandy so unlikely to do any serious damage.

On 12/01/2014 Dieter wrote:> We are going to start in Tasmania. My question:>are some of the routes there also equipped with carrot bolts and, if so,>where is a climbing shop where we can buy the plates? I've got another>question: do you think it is ok to drive the road to White Water Wall Campsite>with a (rented) Toyota Hiace? I would also appreciate any additional info>about the other areas, e.g. bush camping.>Thanks a lot for your help.
Pretty much anything you'd want to do on the Organ Pipes that is bolted won't have carrots. Probably the same for Freycinet, although a few older routes on Main Wall still have carrots. You shouldn't have any problems getting into Whitewater Wall with a HiAce - just take it very slowly in the obvious places.

We couldn't get in with a 2WD 12 months ago. You need quite a bit of ground clearance. We camped somewhere else and parked at the tourist car park further up the road and walk in. I think it's about a half hour walk in.

It was a 25 minute walk in yesterday appreciating Avis upgrade to an xr 6 . Whilst the track is sandy there are a few sump removers here and there and the ford wasn't going to make it whole. An older falcon wagon was at the campsite but had about 2" more ground clearance . I'd say a hi ace will have no problem. Avis has no exclusion on dirt roads unlike hertz auto rent in tas who have a massive excess for any dirt road stuff.
Apline was great. Views of dolphins too

We've had an 'upgraded' rental XR6 in and out of White Water Wall a couple of times. It's really cool seeing the traction control work when the car is teetering on two diagonal wheels. The low profile tyres were very close to rolling off the rims.

The key for us was the zero dollar excess which we got for no extra charge because it was through a mates corporate account.

Thank you very much for your advive. It was really helpful (except "Edward's). I've studied the guides for Tasmania and I am fascinated by the rock towers at Fortescue Bay. I have climbed similar towers in the Italian Dolomites, but this cannot be compared. Candlestick and Totem Pole are no option, but the easiest route at the Moai might be possible (Sacred Site, 18). Grade 18 is about the limit that I can do on trad routes, so this would be a great challenge for me. If somebody has personal experience about the route and access - please let me know!

Checkout thesarvo.com for all the information you could need about climbing in Tassie. It has online guides for every crag in Tas.

As for the Candlestick being not an option, if you can climb 18 on gear then you should get on it for sure. It's a great day out, good climbing on mostly ok rock. It's even better if you can send someone else to do the swim to get our there and rig a tyrolean for you!

Moai is definitely worth a day. Fairly long easy walk but super cool setting & no tyrolians or swimming. An extra rope to leave on the rap down means you can climb the very easy way out with a prussic on the rap line.

I remember Sacred Site to have been pretty easy with a short crux at the top, but it was a long time ago...